


Love

by Caicieskate



Category: Naruto
Genre: Boy tries to bully Kankuro and Gaara’s just like, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Friendship, Gaara doesn’t know what love is, Gaara is Bad at Feelings (Naruto), Gaara is a Good Brother, Gen, Mentioned Baki, Mentioned Uzumaki Naruto, Not Incest, Protective Gaara (Naruto), Sibling Love, Siblings, That’s mean, even if he doesn’t know it, friendship fic, i just realized that it could actually fit into the real storyline, or sibling fic?, shes just scared, temari loves her brother, that’s wack, why doesn’t kankurou have any tags, “what are you doing in my swamp”, “what is love? baby don’t hurt me don’t hurt me no more”
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28727505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caicieskate/pseuds/Caicieskate
Summary: Gaara loved his siblings, even before he knew what love was.
Relationships: Gaara & Kankurou & Temari, Gaara & Kankurou (Naruto), Gaara & Temari (Naruto)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	Love

Temari cursed, twirling around to hit the enemy behind her with a powerful blast of wind. They went flying, bouncing off a nearby sand dune and remaining still. She didn't have time to consider whether they were dead or not before another one attacked her, kunai flying at her face. With a growl, she dodged, ducking under the kunai and coming up to slam her fan into the nin's chin and knock them out. She grimaced as blood spurted from their mouth as a result of biting their tongue. As they fell, she wiped the blood off her face with the back of her hand.

"That's nasty," She muttered, turning to glance back at the rest of her team. Kankurō was stomping on the hands of a downed enemy like a child having a temper tantrum. She could see an arm missing from his puppet, so that was probably why. Baki was rooting through one of the enemy's clothes, no doubt searching for any information or useful items to loot. Gaara... Gaara was staring at nothing, face as blank as ever. She tried not to look at the mutilated corpses around him.

"Take that! Hmph, how does it feel you stupid oaf! Don't touch Karasu; _you are not worthy_!"

Temari facepalmed. Walking up to Kankurō (and thus standing in between him and Gaara), she sighed.

"What are you doing, idiot?" Her hand whipped out to smack the back of his head. Kankurō jumped, scowling at her.

"He ripped off Karasu's arm! I put so much work into repairing it after last time too!"

Temari rolled her eyes. "Maybe if you just reinforced your dolls _like I told you to_ this wouldn't have happened!"

"They're not dolls!" Kankurō shrieked. "They're puppets!"

"Sure, Kankurō, sure. Just like your makeup isn't makeup, it's _warpaint_."

"It _is_ warpaint, dammit!" Kankurō opened his mouth, no doubt about to go on another rampage when he froze. On high alert, Temari spun around, already reaching for her fan, only to see a kunai aimed straight for her forehead. Her eyes widened, grabbing ahold of her fan but the kunai was too close. She wasn't going to be able to deflect it in time.

"Temari!" Kankurō screamed, reaching out for her and she could feel tears in her eyes as the kunai got closer and closer _and closerandcloser--_

Only for it to get blocked just before hitting her. It took a moment for it to register in her mind but when it did she let out a shuddering sob of relief; only to tense up again as she realized that a sand wall was protecting her. _Gaara's_ sand wall, to be precise—his ultimate defence. Temari trembled, because _that didn't make sense_. Gaara had his back to them when they were talking, so he couldn't have known that a kunai was headed for her and even if he did, why would he _protect_ her? Or maybe he didn't. Maybe he just wanted to kill her himself.

She spun on her heels to look at Gaara, but he wasn't even looking at her. His gaze was far off like he hadn't noticed anything at all, not even in her general direction. Kankurō whimpered. _That_ , for whatever reason, got Gaara's attention.

Turning to glare at them, Gaara stopped midway at the sight of his ultimate defence shielding her. He looked... _confused_ —an expression that Temari had never seen on his face. In an instant, his sand was pulled back into his gourd, the kunai tumbling to the sand soundlessly. Gaara's eyes narrowed.

"Why did it defend you?" He demanded, almost accusatory. Temari paled.

"I-I don't know! I swear, I... I have no idea! Promise, Gaara!"

Gaara's glare burnt into her skin, like the eyes of the shinigami itself examining her. She couldn't even muster up enough courage to shake in her extremely classy sandals, staying stone still. Finally, Gaara huffed, going back to ignoring her, and she let out a shaky breath of relief. She brushed off Kankurō's worried hovering and Baki's curious glances.

All she could do was sag in the solace that she would live to see another day.

Regaining her composure, Temari joined Baki in searching the corpses left behind, including the new one that Baki had eliminated after they threw the kunai at her. She pretended her hands weren't shaking.

"All right. We're done here, let's go," Baki commanded, setting off back on the path to the village. Temari and Kankurō nodded and followed like the soldiers they were.

Temari almost stopped breathing as Gaara settled in step beside her and, without even a glance, said: "Don't overthink it. I'll still kill you if you get in my way."

She nodded hastily, pretending not to shiver as he walked away.

* * *

Kankurō wasn't like Temari when it came to Gaara.

He wasn't like her in lot of other ways too, of course, but especially when dealing with Gaara. With Gaara, Temari tried to get on his good side. She tried to make sure that he never had any reason to even look at her outside of the occasional acknowledgment. In everything she did, she was careful and smart.

Kankurō could not be like that.

He couldn't try and butter Gaara up like Temari did, or control his emotions like Temari did. Kankurō was an open book, and this open book had 'Terrified' written on it in big bold letters every time Gaara was near.

So, Kankurō was not like his sister, but sometimes he wished he could be.

"Kankurō," Gaara said, appearing at his side out of nowhere. The bully Kankurō had been arguing with jumped at the sight of Gaara, blood draining from his face like it was being sucked out. Kankurō himself wasn't much better.

"G-Gaara!" Kankurō stuttered, eyes wide as he inched away from the bloodthirsty jinchūriki. Gaara barely glanced at him.

"What are you doing?"

"Um..." Kankurō gaped. "We were just... talking."

Gaara's eyes flicked his way for just a fraction of a second. "Loudly."

Kankurō wanted to scream. He wanted to grab Gaara by the shoulders and shake him, to ask him, 'Why are you here? Why are you talking to me? You've never cared before!' but he didn't—couldn't. He could barely breathe.

"A-A disagreement. Sorry, G-Gaara, we'll be quiet," Kankurō tried, mentally pleading Gaara to _drop it_. Gaara didn't get the memo.

"What about?"

Kankurō was shaking. "Gaara, _really_ , it was nothing."

"I heard you call Kankurō a freak." And, oh my god, Gaara was _ignoring_ him. Kankurō was so confused and scared, he was about to go hysterical.

The boy went even whiter, if that was possible. "I-I-I..."

"You called Kankurō a freak," Gaara repeated, like the boy hadn't heard him the first time. Gaara was merciless, staring the boy down. Then, suddenly but not unexpectedly, the boy fainted. Kankurō probably would have felt sympathetic if he wasn't about ready to faint himself. Gaara looked at the boy blankly, before turning to face Kankurō.

Gaara looked him in the eye, before disappearing in a blink of sand.

Kankurō collapsed to his knees.

* * *

Gaara stretched out his hand, sending his sand to the enemy nin coming up on Temari from behind. The nin choked, just as Temari finished off the first of her attackers. Spinning around, she knocked the nin out with her fan and gave Gaara a grateful smile. Gaara smiled back, hesitantly (he'd been learning how to do that since last year when Naruto had taught him about precious people). On his other side, Kankurō dodged to the side and Gaara's sand pulled the enemy's right leg off balance so that Kankurō had a chance to finish them off. It was over in a second. Kankurō laughed, running up to Gaara and giving him a high-five.

"Nice one!" Kankurō cheered. Gaara nodded, looking over at Temari as she sidled up to his side. Her smile was soft and the sight of it warmed Gaara's chest.

  
Up until last year, Gaara didn't know what the feeling in his chest meant—the warmth that had weaselled its way in when his sand had protected Temari and when he'd sent Kankurō's bully to the floor. Now, Gaara knew better.   
  


Now, Gaara knew that that feeling was love.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I love the Sand Siblings and I really wanted to write a cute story about them (does this count as cute??). Also, do any of you think my format is weird? I normally write on a different program and then transfer here but I’ve noticed that my spaces between paragraphs is really big. Is that normal?
> 
> Please remember: any comments with swearing or inappropriate content will automatically be deleted :)


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